<b>This week on Reddit marketing: AMAs that flopped, and why</b>

<b>This week on Reddit marketing: AMAs that flopped, and why</b>

The failure post-mortems teach more than the wins this week.

— [Case] A startup AMA died at 12 upvotes — the founder posted at 3am ET with no proof album, mods flagged it as covert promo (r/IAmA)
— [Rule-change] r/IAmA now wants verification photos timestamped within 24h, not stock headshots (sub wiki update)
— [Tactic] Seed 5–6 genuine questions to friends before going live so the thread isn't a blank wall (r/AskMarketing)
— [Case] A niche-tool maker pivoted to r/smallbusiness instead and got 3x the engagement of the big sub (r/smallbusiness)
— [Tool] Pushshift-style timing checks for when your target sub is actually awake (r/DataIsBeautiful)

Editor's pick: the r/smallbusiness pivot — proof that a smaller, on-topic sub beats r/IAmA's graveyard for anyone who isn't already famous.